CHECK the internet for Britain’s heaviest mammal and the answer will be the red deer. A fully grown healthy stag might weigh in at a quarter of a ton (250kg). Compare that with an African elephant that can weigh up to six tons.

Now marvel at the young – far from fully grown – sperm whale that washed up last week on a beach in north Norfolk. Best estimates reckon that it weighed in at 10 times as much as a bull elephant.

At nearly 60 tons that makes this British wild species one of the heaviest animals in the world. Only the blue whale – reaching up to 200 tons – and a couple of other whale species are heavier.

The sperm whale washed up on Weybourne beach, near the holiday village of Kelling, along the north Norfolk coast from the holiday resorts of Cromer and Sheringham.

The young adult was about 15 metres (50 ft) long. The huge, rather smelly, corpse was discovered by an early morning dog-walker. It had washed high up on the shingle on Tuesday, December 1.

The walker, Mary Williams, who runs a bed and breakfast in Weybourne, said she had never seen anything like it on the beach in the eight years she had lived in the village.

Williams said: "It was quite high up on the beach. The sea is quite rough at the moment. Its jaw has been dislocated, presumably by it being tossed about by the sea.”

She also said she had seen these giant mammals before, "One day in summer we thought we could see three whales swimming along because we could see their fins, but I've never seen anything washed ashore like this."

Mrs Williams went on to say that although it was not clear what had caused the whale to wash up, she hoped it was not linked to pollution in the ocean she had seen an increase in the amount of plastic waste on the beach in recent years, and pleaded with visitors to take their rubbish home.
 
"Who knows if it's connected, but we know plastic isn't good for the oceans. Some plastic has been washed up from the sea, but other stuff you know has been left by visitors to the beach. Please, if you've brought something to the beach, take it home with you, don't stuff it into bins when they're already full," she said.

All around the globe dead whales have been found stuffed with plastic fishing nets, packaging, rope and other plastic debris.

Carl Chapman, who runs the whale-enthusiasts’ website Norfolk Cetaceans reported: "The washed-up whale cadaver was in a state of putrefaction having been dead for some time, maybe around three weeks."

Mr Chapman said the whale was likely to be the "grey lump" that had been seen floating in the distance by the off-shore wind farm several days before. A week or so before there had also been sightings of what may have been the same whale stranded in an inaccessible part of the Wash.

This year a huge boom in the shoals of squid off Britain’s east coast had lured many whales from their normal fishing grounds. There have been spectacular sightings and many strandings all down the east coast of Scotland and down into England.

Sperm whales can easily be identified by their large, rounded foreheads, which hold a substance called spermaceti. It was from this that the lamp oil was extracted that made sperm whales one of the most popular catches for Britain’s many whaling fleets.

Ambergris, sometimes known as grey amber, is another product from sperm whales. It is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales.

It has become legendarily expensive as a product used by the most luxurious perfume makers. Described as floating gold, it's a highly prized natural treasure used by past royalty and still sought after by exclusive perfume makers.

Ambergris still fetches a huge price. A good lump weighing four pounds sold at auction recently for £50,000. It is not thought that the Weybourne whale would have contained any ambergris.

Sperm whales have the largest brain of any creature ever known to have lived on Earth, far larger than any dinosaur.  Although they are no longer hunted, sperm whales are still considered an endangered species.

Sperm whales were hunted to the brink of extinction by British whaling firms based around the huge whaling base at South Georgia in the South Atlantic. Today many sightings of sperm whales here suggest the mighty species has fought its way back.

Argentine scrap dealers clearing the redundant whaling station on what they call the Malvinas and flying their national flag over the demolition site was the excuse Thatcher and her government used in 1982 to start the Falklands War and win electoral popularity to gain another term in power.   

The  proliferation of squid in the North Sea this year provided some good eating on fishmongers slabs as  well as tempting some huge whales from their normal hunting grounds in the Atlantic to chase the squid  into the southern North Sea.

In August this year two Sowerby’s beaked whales were seen floundering in shallow water at Caister, just up the coast from Weybourne beach. Well-intentioned members of the public pushed an infant back out to sea. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, it was found dead further south on the beach at Lowestoft.

The young Sowerby’s was a 3.8m (12ft) female, probably born earlier this summer. The larger animal, presumably an adult, and most likely the mother, was not seen again.

These were just a few examples of the many sightings and strandings of our little-seen, but most impressive members of our wild, diverse and spectacular mammal population.